Wrong-way driver arrested in multiple-car crash on 14 Freeway

The wrong-way driver who allegedly caused a nine-vehicle pileup on the 14 Freeway in the Antelope Valley has been arrested, the California Highway Patrol said Tuesday.

Rick Allen Walker, 54, of Canyon Country, was suspected of being under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of the late-afternoon Monday crash that injured 13 people, three critically, the CHP said.

CHP officers were working an earlier collision, off to the right of the northbound lanes of the highway, near Vasquez Rocks Park, when they saw a vehicle heading the wrong way at about 85 mph. The vehicle slammed head-on into another car, sparking chain-reaction collisions.

Walker, who is being treated for lacerations, will be transferred to a Los Angeles County jail as soon as he can be released from Antelope Valley Hospital, the CHP said.